October 24, 1999
Hello everyone. The quiz bird I saw on 10/20 will have to remain a
mystery. Thanks to those of you who reponded to my inquiry. I
considered
the most likely and unlikely possibilities (black hawk, zone-tailed,
harlan's red-tailed, dark morph rough-legged) for that hawk but I am
not
certain enough to identify it even after painstaking deliberation.
The
high pressure that is moving north of us turned the wind from
northeast
to the southeast in the afternoon today. The continuation of that
wind
does not bode well for the next couple of days. All bird migration
seemed
to be on the slow setting for us here, not much of anything despite
over
100 hawks. Today's count:
13 Turkey Vulture
1 White-tailed Kite
11 Northern Harrier
9 Sharp-shinned Hawk
12 Cooper's Hawk
60 Broad-winged Hawk
3 Swainson's Hawk
6 Red-tailed Hawk
10 American Kestrel
1 Unid. accipiter
2 Unid. buteo
5 Unid. raptor
133 Total Hawks
Until tomorrow,
Kyle McCarty
Official counter
Smith Point Hawk Watch is made possible by donations from Exxon,
Hawkwatch International, Houston O.G., Gulf Coast Bird Observatory,
and
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Computer donated by Texas Partners in Flight and Compaq. Thank you
all.
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